The Bourne Supremacy Blu-Ray+DVD Review
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 01.28.2010
The spy franchise that made 007 take notes lands on Blu-Ray.
The Movie
When The Bourne Identity came out in 2002, it was a success story no one expected. It single-handedly revived the sagging career of star Matt Damon and it came out the same year as XXX and Die Another Day. The latter movies of which were symbolized how utterly ridiculous and moronic spy movies and the Bond movies in particular had become. Bourne took a few basic concepts, ideas, and characters from a series of novels created by Robert Ludlum and put it together in an interesting, unique package. Bourne definitely had some action and pizazz but it had a certain element of back to basics filmmaking and a more grittier, realistic tone (the big staircase stunt aside). The first Bourne became a sleeper hit and ended up grossing $122 million despite never being #1 and ended up even making more money than The Sum of All Fears starring Damon's buddy and co-Academy Award winner, Ben Affleck. The movie was a huge word of mouth hit and appealed to the sensibilities of older viewers that were into pulp/action/thriller spy novels instead of wallowing in juvenile self-parody like the execrable XXX and Die Another Day. What clinched demand for a sequel despite skepticism from Damon himself was The Bourne Identity becoming one of the best-selling DVD's of 2003.
During the production of the first movie, there were many issues and conflicts with director Doug Liman who was rumoredly to have been paid $1 million to leave the editing room for the movie. Liman was succeeded by director Paul Greengrass, a director who had mainly specialized in political docudramas mainly for British TV and had also co-wrote the infamous book, Spycatcher. Despite the change in director, most of the cast and crew from the first movie returned so the movie didn't feel like a huge dramatic anti-sequel like say some of the Bond movies or the Mission Impossible movies or Batman and Robin. What Greengrass did do was take the ball Liman got rolling with Identity and took it even further with The Bourne Supremacy. Much like the first movie, only a few ideas and concepts from Ludlum's sequel novel of the same name were kept, the rest being jettisoned as the Bourne movies were creating their own continuity and universe. The most definingly different of which was murder of Marie (Franka Potente) which sets Bourne into action for this film.
The killing of Marie so early into the movie was a bold, ambitious, and downright ballsy move by Gilroy, but ultimately it works in continuing Bourne's story and giving him a reason to move forward with his plot of vengeance and also redemption. Sometime after the first movie, Bourne and Marie have moved to India living in anonymous seclusion. Not all of the pieces of Bourne's previous life as a government assassin of a group called Treadstone have come together in Jason's head. However, overseas a Russian agent named Kirill (Karl Urban) bungles a CIA plot to uncover a mole and pins the crime on Bourne. Kirill than hunts down Bourne and Marie which leaves Marie dead but Bourne alive and angry in the process. Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), the agent supervising the operation to expose the mole, learns of Bourne and Treadstone from Ward Abbott (Brian Cox). Abbott was essentially Treadstone director Conklin's (Chris Cooper) boss in the first movie and reluctantly goes along with Pam in the new operation to catch Jason Bourne. Bourne, haunted by the memories of people he killed as an assassin, goes on a non-stop journey that takes him from India to Berlin to Moscow and New York in his search for answers and to put to those that are hunting him as he warned swift action at the end of the first movie if anything were to come back for him.
As stated previously, Greengrass pushes the envelope even further established in the first movie. Greengrass opted for a more organic and grittier look to the movie, shooting it almost entirely hand-held. This gives the movie almost a more documentary, French New Wave look and style. And yes there is a good amount of what's notoriously referred to as "shaky-cam" in the film, but it never feels too overdone or ridiculous. Greengrass created an even more exciting and frenetic pacing with this movie that he improved even more with The Bourne Ultimatum.
What's sort of even more likable about this movie and the series in particular is the back to basics element with the character of Jason Bourne and the story. There aren't fancy, ridiculous, overblown gadgets. Bourne gets by simply with his head, wits, and skills. He doesn't have fancy cars, he has to outrun authorities and assailants chasing him in a standard taxi cab in one of the movie's awesome chase scenes. The women aren't these exotic bombshells. Greengrass simply maintains the more organic, realistic storytelling the first movie brought to the table.
My main issues with the movie are slight. As much as it worked, I'm still somewhat ambivalent about killing off Marie. Even though it ultimately worked and gave Bourne a reason to continue fighting, I hated to see her go. I think Potente and her relationship and amazing chemistry with Damon was one of the best and most driving points of the first movie. And I hated to see it go away in this film so quickly. I also hated that Marie was essentially replaced by Julia Stiles' returning character Nicky from the first movie. People complained that Stiles who suddenly became a big star around the time The Bourne Identity was released had so little to do in the movie even though the movie was made before Stiles career had taken off. So Marie was killed off, and Stiles got to remain. That never sat well with me, especially when you can practically hear Universal executives begging the production crew to have Damon sleep with Stiles. My only other issue was the role of the Marton Csokas character, Jarda. Jarda is apparently one of the last Treadstone agents and is aware of everything that happened in the first movie. Bourne despite not having all of his memories back is aware of and knows who Jarda is and tracks Jarda down for information before they get into a fight. It felt like a copout to put in this new character we had never seen before. Would it have not made more sense to make this character Manheim, the operative that executes Conklin at the end of the first movie? And what happened to Manheim? Also, how are there two different CIA directors in this movie and Ultimatum?
Once again, these are only slight, nitpicky issues. The Bourne Trilogy remains one of the pinnacle and defining franchises of the decade. The James Bond movies had become such a joke and self-parody that they looked to the Bourne franchise for inspiration. Not surprising since the Bourne movies had essentially surpassed Bond's popularity in the US. The future of the Bourne movies are currently in question with the announcement of director, Greengrass, leaving the project due to creative differences. Damon was previously open to returning providing the story and script was there, and writer Gilroy has moved on from the franchise as well. Damon's returning to the franchise is still in question. As perfect as the Bourne series is as a trilogy, when there's money involved, try telling a studio like Universal (frought with a lot of issues lately as well) to say no.
The Rating: 9.0 out of 10.0
The Video
The video for the Blu-ray version of the movie is in 1080p High-Definition Widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The DVD is in it's original Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 version. The disc faithfully encodes the picture of the movie. Greengrass in shooting the movie made it look more gritty, grainer, and darker. It doesn't look as sharp as Identity, but the locations still look fantastic onscreen and the color hasn't been degraded so it's almost black and white like a film noir.
The Rating: 9.0 out of 10.0
The Audio
The Blu-ray version features English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and France and Spanish tracks in DTS 5.1 Optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles are also included. The DVD version features English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital tracks in 5.1 also with the same optional subtitles. The audio tracks are clear, clean, and pristine. The soundtrack sounds great and has fine depth. I love composer John Powell's strong, yet understated score. More than anything, I love that thematically all the movies music sounds similar. And hey, even the credits sequence song, "Extreme Ways," by Moby as the movie's signature end theme is awesome.
The Rating: 9.0 out of 10.0
The Extras and Packaging
Universal has put together a single-disc release that is combination Blu-ray/DVD disc. The disc is packaged in the standard Blu-ray clamshell style casing with a slip cover. The Blu-ray is more or less a straight up port of the DVD release as far as the special features go:
Audio Commentary with Director Paul Greengrass
Explosive Deleted Scenes
The Bourne Diagnosis
The Bourne Mastermind
Scoring with John Powell
Anatomy of a Scene: The Explosive Bridge Chase Scene
The Go-Mobile Revs Up The Action
Crash Cam: Racing Through the Streets of Moscow
Bourne to Be Wild: Fight Training
On the Move with Jason Bourne
Blowing Things Up
Keeping It Real
Matching Identities: Casting
Also exclusive to the Blu-ray version are features such as picture in picture, Bourne Dossier, and The Bourne Orientation. Dossier and Orientation offer additional interviews, videos, and commentary during the movie via an enhanced picture in picture mode. Personally, I'm not big on this type of feature since I would rather just watch a movie with commentary or by itself and then watch the special features. But the enhanced viewing modes do offer a lot more of content and insight into the production of the movie. Some of the video though is derivative from the extra features on the disc.
The Audio Commentary with Paul Greengrass is fantastic. Greengrass always does good commentaries. The commentary is very dry, but very informative and Greengrass's interest and ingenuity toward the project really comes through. Greengrass has this odd sort of charisma and great enthusiasm that's very appealing.
There are about 10 minutes of Deleted Scenes included on the disc. These include some additional sequences of Bourne on his search as well as some more background on Abbott's plot. The scenes with Abbott continue the theme of the walls closing around Abbott and Abbott desperately trying to escape the noose. There's also the alternate ending that dramatically changes the energy and coolness of what ended up in the theatrical version of the movie. What they picked for the theatrical cut was much better. Not only that, the ending ultimately ruins one of the great plot and narrative twists in the history of cinema when you understand the meaning of the ending of Supremacy.
The disc also features numerous mini-featurettes on the production of the movie including information on the casting, the score, and the numerous action sequences. My personal favorites were Crash Cam and Go-Mobile showing how the car chases were filmed. They also show how the new, innovative camera riggings that were made in order to film the awesome car chases for the film.
The Rating: 10.0 out of 10.0
The 411: A fine Blu-ray/DVD release and an absolute must own for your definitive DVD/Blu-ray collection. The Bourne series would only get better from here, breaking the usual third movie curse with The Bourne Ultimatum. As good as these movies are as a trilogy, I still have this urge to see more despite the risk of the franchise getting lame and tired. Damon is just so good in the role and this character and doing so much with little dialogue, I just want to see him keep playing this character for a long time.
